Judas and the Black Messiah
Director: Shaka King
Writer: Shaka King, Kenneth Lucas, Keith Lucas, Will Berson
Starring: Daniel Kaluuya (man, this guy is great), LaKeith Stanfield (so is this guy), Jesse Plemons (screw you, Todd), Dominique Fishback, Ashton Sanders, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Lil Rel Howery, Dominique Thorne, Martin Sheen
Reason for watching: Award season release
Number of times I’ve watched it: first time viewing
***
How many great dou’s are there in professional basketball? I’m sorry that I like the sport so much and have to talk about it in my movie blog but indulge me for a second. Shaq and Kobe. MJ and Pippen. Magic and Kareem. LeBron and D-Wade. These guys had years of playing and practicing together which turned into an amazing dynamic that worked wonderfully in the game of basketball. But some of these teammates end up being on similar journeys to one another. Take, for example, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. After winning three championships and parting ways, they both had some amounts of success without the other. Kobe tried out Pau Gasol (to a lot of success) and Dwight Howard (to much less success) and Kwame Brown (to no success). Shaq worked with Dwyane Wade (to a lot of success), Steve Nash (to minimal success; thanks, Steve Kerr), and even LeBron James (at this point in Shaq’s career LeBron was carrying Shaq’s 350-pound backside). O’Neal retired in 2011 after playing only 12 minutes in his final playoff series, and Kobe retired in 2016 after a season filled with farewells, backslaps, and shooting 50 times in his last game. But in the end, as they looked for someone else to compliment them, they were on journeys to one another that led to very different yet similar places.
The movie is about the former chairman of the Chicago Black Panther party Fred Hampton (Kaluuya) and his assassination due to the work of William O’Neal (Stanfield). We watch as O’Neal works his way up the ladder for Hampton in different capacities, all the while he is working for the FBI and reporting directly to agent Mitchel (Jesse Plemons).
You would think a movie like this would try to paint our protagonists are exact opposites. In reality, they are more similar than one would think on the surface. We have the altruistic leader of the Black Panther Party in Chicago. Hampton is well educated, well-spoken, and the perfect person to take on the racist system he is struggling against. O’Neal is struggling against the system as well in a much more personal way. After getting busted for impersonating a federal officer and stealing a car, he is kept under the thumb of the FBI and forced to be an informant on Hampton. As the plot goes on, O’Neal becomes increasingly uncomfortable with his actions, but the prospect of jail time keeps him from turning against the FBI. Along the way, Hampton and O’Neal bond during their experiences of oppression and trying to escape the pressure of the evil authorities over them.
We get to see the human side of both men as well. We watch Hampton fall in love with the mother of his child, Deborah Johnson (soft-spoken and yet strongly played by Dominique Fishback). We get to see him convince everyone from Chicago gangs and white supremacists to join his coalition of oppressed people fighting back against the system. During his final night, Hampton still trusts O’Neal before his death. O’Neal’s humanity is revealed in the sadness behind his eyes before he drugs Hampton on the night of his death, and again in the archive footage interview shown of him 20 years after the events of the movie.
I love the cinematography in the movie as well. The deep cast and strong portrayals make this easily the best movie of 2021 so far. I know some folks might not be pleased by Warner Bro’s decision to release their entire 2021 slate of movies straight to HBO Max, but being able to watch this movie in my home was a privilege. I’ll say it again. It’s the best movie of the year so far. And it’s a reminder of the struggles faced by everyone who is in a marginalized group of people.
9/10
Until I see another one